Catholic Lawyers Guild at 300 West Ottawa, Lansing, MI 48933 US - Bishop James A. Murray

This address was given by Bishop James A. Murray, Bishop of Kalamazoo, at our Guild’s Spring Event held at St. Mary Cathedral Parish Center Lansing, Michigan, June 30, 2004 Marriage & Family Today Prior to addressing the topic on which I was invited to speak "The Marriage Covenant Today," I would first like to make some comments on the culture of our contemporary world, especially here in the United States. That culture often flies in the face of the teachings and beliefs of our Catholic Church. The media, the American judicial system, the entertainment industry, the educational system are often aggressively secular as they overemphasize the individual. We live in a "here and now" culture with great emphasis on the individual as the sole norm of truth. For these reasons and many others as well, the Catholic Church's frame of reference is often not understood, respected or accepted. The Church speaks of transcendence to a world that enshrines self sufficiency, to a world that relates only to the "here and now." The Church believes in objective truth in a culture that claims truth to be relative (there is your truth and my truth). The Church promotes the natural law rooted in human nature in an atmosphere that denies any objective norm of behavior, and at times even resorts to the law of the jungle as some did on 9/11/01. The Church supports a freedom of conscience which "is never freedom 'from' the truth but always freedom 'in' the truth." (John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth - #64) The Church consistently insists that the end can never justify the means and that if actions are intrinsically evil, a good intention can (at best) diminish their evil but...cannot remove it." (ibid #81) "Circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act 'subjectively' good or defensible as a choice." (ibid #81) Many in our contemporary world extol greed, unfettered power, and self-gratification and turn a deaf ear to the Church's advocacy for the poor, for its insistence that sound moral principle must control the use of power, and for sacrificial, self-giving love for others. Little wonder then that Church is like John the Baptist - "a voice crying in the wilderness." (Mt 3:3) Little wonder that the strongest defender of human dignity and human life, Pope John Paul is often summarily dismissed as an aging, out of touch chauvinist. Given the vast abyss between the contemporary culture - a culture of death and our Catholic Church, we should not be surprised at the opposition, the prejudice even the serious efforts to marginalize the Church and its influence; even to deny its right to participate in the public debate on moral issues affecting the common good of society. And I hasten to point out that all the opposition does not come from groups outside the Church - groups who have consistently opposed us-groups such as NOW, the ACLU, the POAU and P1anned Parenthood. We are opposed by some of our own who not surprisingly have been greatly influenced by the contemporary culture - a culture that does not reflect the Church's beliefs and its moral teaching. 1he problem is not only that they do not listen - they simply do not speak the same language. The mission of evangelizing the world is indeed a most daunting one. Nor should we be dismayed or discouraged for it has been ever thus. The Church has never lacked for opposition from its earliest days with brutal persecution, heresy and paganism - down to more recent times with the Know Nothings and the Klu Klux Klan, Fascism and Communism. The Church has not only survived in these unfriendly, hostile environments - it has often prospered! Today's culture is a serious threat not only to the Church but also to the basic unit of every society - THE FAMILY and MARRIAGE 'properly understood. As Pope John Paul said in his "Apostolic Exhortation to the Church if] America." "Many insidious forces are endangering the solidity of the family in most countries of America, and these (forces) represent so many challenges for Christians" (#46) To illustrate how true this is for us in the United States consider a few vital statistics: a.) In 1997, there were 1,163,000 divorces. 10% of our population is divorced. b.) b.) In 1997, 50% of 1st marriages ended in divorce and 60% of all remarriages. c.) c.) In 2000, 8.5 million males had been divorced. 11.3 million females. d.) d.) 5.5 million unmarried couples live together. As for the children in these breakdowns of the family: a.) In 1998, 20 million children under age 18 lived with a single parent, or 28%. b.) The number of single parents totals more then 2 million males and 9.68 million females. c.) 4 million children under 18 years live with their grandparents (those steady, reliable members of the "greatest generation"). By way of illustrating how much the breakdown of the family impacts American society, consider these statistics: a.) Children of divorce are 50% more likely to divorce than their counter parts. b.) b.) Fatherless homes account for: 63% of youth suicides 90% of homeless children 85% of child behavior problems 71 % of high school dropouts 85% of youths in prison (well over) 50% of teen mothers From these numbers you need not be a genius to see that the breakdown of the family is the cause of much of modern society's problems. There would be no need for more prisons if we had more stable marriages and families. Nor does one need an Einstein IQ, to find an answer to the problem. The answer can be found in the Church's teachings on marriage and the family much of which applies to all marriages and every family - not just those of Christians and/or Catholics. In the interest of brevity and for the sake of clarity, let me quote the Catechism of the Catholic Church. First: "A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority (the State) which has an obligation to recognize it." (#2202) Second: "In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution." (#2203) Third: "The vocation of marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics." (1603) Fourth: "The family is the ORIGINAL CELL OF SOCIAL LIFE. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to GIVE THEMSELVES IN LOVE AND IN THE GIFT OF LOVE. (2207) Fifth: "Authority, stability and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn mora! values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom." (2207) Sixth: "The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty 'to acknowledge the TRUE NATURE OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMIL V, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality and promote domestic prosperity." (2210) Seventh: "Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility 1st by creating a HOME where tenderness, respect, fidelity and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for EDUCATION IN THE VIRTUES. Finally: Take note that these statements of the Catechism apply to all marriages and families - no matter what religion or even no religion whatever. It is all a matter of "NATURAL LAW" - the LAW OF NATURE which is the foundation of all law and every human right - or as our Declaration of Independence says "the laws of NATURE and of Nature’s God." In summary as the bishops of the United States said last year: "Marriage, as instituted by God, is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman joined in an intimate community of LIFE and LOVE. They commit themselves completely to each other and to the wondrous responsibility of bringing children into the world and caring for them. The call to marriage is woven deeply into the human spirit. Man and woman are equal. However, as created, they are different from but (at the same time) made for each other. This COMPLEMENTARITY, including sexual difference, draws them together in a mutually loving union that should be always open to the procreation of children." Not bad for an aging group of male celibates! History demonstrates and current statistics convincingly confirm that whenever and to the degree that we depart from the correct concept of the nature and purpose of marriage and family, our Church, our nation and our world are the losers - but most of all the children! Shortly before his martyrdom (AD 63-67) St. Paul wrote some words of exhortation and encouragement which sound like they were addressed to us in this 21st century: "I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all PATIENCE and TEACHING. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine - but following their own desires ---will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth. But you, be self-possessed; in all circumstances put up with hardship, perform the work of evangelist; fulfill your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:1-5

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